He was alone in the
counting-house and sat down on a chair. Presently a glass door was
opened and the young ass put in his head: "Are you here, Annie?"
No, it was only her husband!
He rose and went away. The young ass called his wife Annie, and was
evidently on very familiar terms with her. It was more than he could
bear.
When she came home they had a scene. She reproached him with the fact
that he did not take his views on the emancipation of women seriously,
otherwise he could not be annoyed at her being on familiar terms with
her fellow-clerks. He made matters worse by admitting that his views
were not to be taken seriously.
"Surely he didn't mean what he was saying! Had he changed his mind?
How could he!"
"Yes, he had changed his mind. One could not help modifying one's
views almost daily, because one had to adapt them to the conditions of
life which were always changing. And if he had believed in spiritual
marriages in the days gone by, he had now come to lose faith in
marriages of any sort whatever. That was progress in the direction of
radicalism. And as to the spiritual, she was spiritually married to
the young ass rather than to him, for they exchanged views on the
management of the goods department daily and hourly, while she took no
interest at all in the cultivation of forests.
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